OBSERVED INTERACTION BEHAVIORS BETWEEN A NURSE LEADER AND NURSE FOLLOWERS DURING SHIFT REPORT.
Contributors: University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Published: 1995
Number of pages: 163
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Speech Communication.; Women's Studies.
Description: A wide disparity exists in nursing homes among the educational levels, experience judgment, and socioeconomic status of nursing staff (LPNs (licensed practical nurses), less than 20% of the total nursing staff; NAs (nurse aide), provider of 90% of direct care to residents). The LPN's ability to manage and direct the NAs largely determines the nursing staff's effectiveness and the quality of care. This study explored behavioral interactions between an LPN leader and NA followers during their shift-report communication, with the goal of further understanding this dyad relationship.

King's conceptual system and Hersey and Blanchard's situational leadership model provided the framework for this study. The subjects were videotaped in 9 evening shift reports; the first, baseline recording, and the last, with only 3 NAs present, were eliminated from the analysis. The interaction behaviors in the 3rd and 4th min from the remaining 7 recordings were analyzed.

The Target Behavior Instrument was used to identify and score effective leader, effective follower, and ineffective follower interaction behaviors. One LPN leader and 6 NAs (all female) comprised the convenience sample.

The findings were congruent with situational leadership theory that proposes using a telling approach with less experienced followers. The findings included: (a) a predominance of instruction giving by the leader, with limited questioning and supporting behaviors; (b) a pattern of acceptance in the NAs; (c) predominant leader-follower interactions between the LPN and NAs in their respective categories, with ineffective follower behaviors ranked second for both; (d) directing-attentive listening as the most frequent dyad interaction pattern; (e) interactions were influenced by employment history and education; and (f) the LPN displayed a variety of behaviors, in contrast to the relatively stable interactions manifest by the NAs through the repeated measures.

Recommendations for research include: (a) replicate the study using a larger, randomized sample with similar and different nursing staff and units; (b) survey nursing staff satisfaction before and after shift reports and compare with nursing outcomes and resident and family satisfaction; and (c) evaluate the effectiveness of pretraining and posttraining videotaping of an educational intervention as a staff development tool.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-01, Section: B, page: 0237.

Thesis (D.S.N.)--UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM, 1995.

School code: 0005.